Light fields provide the most complete representation of a scene, as they describe the intensity of light rays emitted from any position, and in any direction, in a real world coordinate system. If captured with sufficient sampling, it is possible to steer multiple light field views back to an observer within a viewing zone in the coordinate system by means of an integral display comprising, for example, a two dimensional (2D) elemental image display and a 2D array of microlenses (or lenticular sheet). The integral display enables 3D perception of the captured scenes without requiring special glasses or goggles. However, due to the limited spatial resolution of the integral display (as inherently defined by the microlens pitch), the densely captured light fields must typically be spatially under sampled so that they can fit the display resolution. Traditionally, this is accomplished using 2D interpolation which locally averages the spatial pixels within a window to produce an under sampled version of the original light field views. In the case where neighboring pixels of the light field view belong to different depth planes in 3D world coordinates, this under sampling can result in relatively shallow depth perception (e.g., parallax) on the integral display, producing unsatisfactory results. Alternatively, a 4D interpolation of the light field, based on spatio-angular local averaging, may be employed. This approach, however, may only provide limited enhancement of the synthesized views, but at greatly increased computational cost and with restricted rendering possibilities.
Although the following Detailed Description will proceed with reference being made to illustrative embodiments, many alternatives, modifications, and variations thereof will be apparent in light of this disclosure.